Life~ It’s unpredictable. Eat Dessert First!

In celebration of my first real blog article let’s do dessert! I want to share with you one of my most favorite chocolate cupcake recipes which you absolutely won’t believe is vegan! It means that no animals were harmed in the making so you will earn your wings while baking them and just one bite will send you straight to heaven! I am so impressed by these it’s not even funny. Thankfully I didn’t let the word vegan scare me from trying this recipe when I found it waaay back by accident because it helped me to broaden my awareness and realize there is an awesome world of baking out there that does not involve harming animals or needless added cholesterol! Who ever started that whole baking trend that must consist of eggs and dairy? Well it doesn’t! Howexciting is that!?!

I love the idea of cupcakes because they are so trendy yet they never seem to go out of style. I have to be honest, I really wasn’t a huge cupcake fan until I baked these. No joke. I can’t stand a dry cupcake and that’s usually my luck when I bite into one. Times have changed and I see manybatches of vegan cupcakes in my future as my son enters his grade school years and if I can find anyreason at all to bake these, I will! This is a cupcake that visits me in my dreams!

I would love to take the credit for these cupcakes but I can’t. Truth is I only changed the recipe slightly, baked a few batches and then got creative and baked a whole cake. That’s right cake fans, this recipe can be turned into the most impressive moist chocolate cake! Credit for this cupcake and frosting recipe is due to the must have cupcake cook book called: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Tempting creations like Green Tea, Banana split, Chai Latte, Smores, Tiramisu, Chocolate Mint, and tons more, 75 to be exact. There’s a cupcake flavor for everyone! I originally found the Basic Vegan Chocolate Cupcake recipe at Chow along with the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting.

The Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients

1 cup vanilla hemp milk. I used Living Harvest brand. You can use soy, almond or other non-dairy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup vegan organic granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp more vanilla extract. You can use almond or chocolate here but I chose more vanilla

1 cup all-purpose organic flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder, I used Hershey brand cocoa before I found organic cocoa

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Whisk together the hemp milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes (if using soy milk this will make it curdle which is what you want, I didn’t notice any curdling with the hemp milk but did not want to chance omitting the apple cider vinegar as they came out so perfect with it). Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, more vanilla or other extract to the hemp milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large clumps remain (a few small ones are ok).

Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

1/2 cup finely mashed vegan chocolate cream filled sandwich cookies. I used Back to Nature organic brand. You can use Newman-O’s or even Oreo which are vegan. About 5 cookies = 1/2 cup mashed

Directions

Leave the shortening and margarine sticks out to soften at room temperature for a bit. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and hemp milk and beat for another 5-7 minutes until fluffy. Stir into the frosting 1/2 cup mashed vegan chocolate cream filled sandwich cookies. Frost cupcakes generously and top each with half of a sandwich cookie.

I put the frosting in a big Zip-Loc and cut the corner off and piped my frosting on (a real baking Pro! Ha ha). I froze the remaining frosting for when I get a crazy craving for this amazing treat! It defrosts pretty decently at room temp. You can halve this frosting recipe if you are spreading rather than piping as it makes a lot!

For a fun variation: I frosted a few cupcakes before I added the mashed cookies to the Cookies-n-Cream frosting recipe and just topped with sprinkles.

To make a double layer round chocolate cake, I made two batches of the cupcake batter, one for each 9 inch round baking pan and baked for the same amount of time (adjusting if needed). It came out perfect! You can get pretty creative with fillings for the middle or just use some of the same frosting.

I would love to hear from you! Any favorite vegan cupcake recipes out there? Please do share :)

Jennifer said,

Syndi said,

WOW those cupcakes were the best! I made them tonight for my family and they were a hit! My husband who does not care for sweets wanted more! But I did put one twist to your recipe….. Instead of hemp or regular soy, I used vanilla soy and omitted the vanilla flavoring… killed two birds with one stone.
Thanks for the recipe, I am making more tomorrow!!!!!

karmatarian said,

Syndi, that is so awesome to hear! Funny, I had the opposite thing in mind and used vanilla hemp to add more vanilla flavor :) either way good to know they turn out great both ways! I just got my own copy of “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” and made the Margarita cupcakes… OMG they are unbelievable… so many more to try! I love it! Happy cupcake baking!!! Thanks for writing!
~Christa